I finished my CanBioI midterm yesterday and was looking forward to printing it out and handing it in this morning. When I open the file on the computer in the library, however, I see a bunch of gibberish sprawled across the Word document. The horror sinks in and I realize I saved my paper in MS Word 2007's new .docx file format that is incompatible with 2000. It's too late to dash back to my apartment to edit the file, so I fight panic and try a different set of computers in the BSLC (main building for my program). Sure that, despite the computers having Word 2003 installed, my file would be useless again, I started thinking of a story for my TA.: "I finished the midterm, I swear, I'm just an idiot and saved it in the wrong file format." Uh huh. That's a real likely story. To my extreme relief, I see "Microsoft Word is converting the file" scroll across the bottom and hold my breath. Sure enough, I see real words instead of Wingding symbols and I'm saved! Heart attack averted and lesson learned.
Who needs coffee when you've got adrenaline?
Today we got back the results of our Cell Biology midterm. Cue scary music and "Psycho" violins. I was rather surprised at the results. Out of a possible 150 points the class average was, drumroll please..........77. That's right. Approximately 51.33333333%. (Last year, the average was about 100, or about 66.666666%). Here's what perhaps more shocking. The highest score achieved was a 106. That's approximately 70.66666666%. Even the most studious student did no better than a C! (if 90-100 A's, 80-90 B's, etc). Standard deviation was 15 points. I'm not a statistics guru, but I think that means most people did pretty poorly and it was a really hard test. Does that sound right? Oh, and how did I fare? Let's just say it could have been a lot worse. It's comforting to know that this exam is but 30% of our grade, and that I've got 40% almost perfect with my weekly discussion write ups and awesome presentation. I do know, however, that I must study even more than a week ahead (and harder than ever) for our last exam. Just to think, some people believe I'm so smart...This is graduate school baby!
And now for something completely different:
While walking back to my apartment today, my eyes randomly alit on a license plate cover that had the words "University North Ford" in a way that looked surprisingly familiar. Neither the design nor font were anything striking, but something says "North Carolina" and some Triangle resident more specifically. In the three seconds it took for me to think this through, I reached the bumper plate and, sure enough, saw the words "First in Flight" printed below the alphanumeric string. Two points for me! Call it some bizarre intuition, sheer luck, or magic (given the day of the year), I was quite pleased.
I kind of miss NC license plates. It's a silly thing to miss, but it's something that really gives one a sense of place. It reminded me of our road trip this summer. We passed through over a dozen states and saw only two NC plates in an entire month on the road. Where do North Carolinians go over the summer? Maine? New York? No one wants to see California? Utah? Idaho? Shame on them!
Who needs coffee when you've got adrenaline?
Today we got back the results of our Cell Biology midterm. Cue scary music and "Psycho" violins. I was rather surprised at the results. Out of a possible 150 points the class average was, drumroll please..........77. That's right. Approximately 51.33333333%. (Last year, the average was about 100, or about 66.666666%). Here's what perhaps more shocking. The highest score achieved was a 106. That's approximately 70.66666666%. Even the most studious student did no better than a C! (if 90-100 A's, 80-90 B's, etc). Standard deviation was 15 points. I'm not a statistics guru, but I think that means most people did pretty poorly and it was a really hard test. Does that sound right? Oh, and how did I fare? Let's just say it could have been a lot worse. It's comforting to know that this exam is but 30% of our grade, and that I've got 40% almost perfect with my weekly discussion write ups and awesome presentation. I do know, however, that I must study even more than a week ahead (and harder than ever) for our last exam. Just to think, some people believe I'm so smart...This is graduate school baby!
And now for something completely different:
While walking back to my apartment today, my eyes randomly alit on a license plate cover that had the words "University North Ford" in a way that looked surprisingly familiar. Neither the design nor font were anything striking, but something says "North Carolina" and some Triangle resident more specifically. In the three seconds it took for me to think this through, I reached the bumper plate and, sure enough, saw the words "First in Flight" printed below the alphanumeric string. Two points for me! Call it some bizarre intuition, sheer luck, or magic (given the day of the year), I was quite pleased.
I kind of miss NC license plates. It's a silly thing to miss, but it's something that really gives one a sense of place. It reminded me of our road trip this summer. We passed through over a dozen states and saw only two NC plates in an entire month on the road. Where do North Carolinians go over the summer? Maine? New York? No one wants to see California? Utah? Idaho? Shame on them!
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3 comments:
You sure had a scary Halloween even without dressing up and going trick-treating!One hell of a tough test. When we were on road to California, I saw one NC lic.plate in Arizona gas station and I was so excited. Maybe next year you should take Camry!
What about the North Carolinian couple working at that gift shop in Yellowstone?
And imagine how surprising it must have been for all those people in California, Utah, and Idaho to see a van driving by with NC plates. :)
Btw, the Times of India had a cool article today about RNA interference, and it reminded me of your research at UNC.
Also, Malan Mami and I were talking yesterday about what classes you are taking and what kind of research you want to do. Specifically, she wants to know why you want to study p53. I told her I thought that was the gene implicated in most cancers, but I'm not sure.
So Michigan has outlawed our classic all-blue license plates, i.e. the one I had. I got a new one in the mail. Very bland blue on white. I got to thinking how similar it looked to the NY plate and then OH NO - I couldn't remember the NC design. Thank the Google gods
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